Kurt Zuelsdorf, a Gulfport Pearl
You may not know the name Kurt Zuelsdorf, but he’s one of the main reasons Clam Bayou is a pleasant place to paddle. Let’s meet him. Photo by Cathy Salustri
It’s a surprisingly mild June weekday morning when I met with Kurt Zuelsdorf, the founder of Kayak Nature Adventures. Here in front of me is a man with a trash picker and bucket, sweat-wicking clothes and a sun hat. We must walk and talk, picking up trash along the way. It seems most of our conversation centers around the history of trash and its abatement in Clam Bayou.
Yet our topic really isn’t about trash at all. For the whole of it, we’re talking about tending to and protecting the natural environment around us. I’ve met someone with an abiding love and respect for nature and specifically, Clam Bayou. So, on we walk, with no piece of garbage too small to pick up.
Kurt Zuelsdorf
Zuelsdorf has spent most of his life as a nature guide, beginning at age 9, taught by his naturalist father on the Horicon Marsh in Wisconsin. He began guiding visitors through the history of the marsh, pointing out waterways and habitats living harmoniously, and showing visitors how to enter that harmony and appreciate the complexity and balance.
“In nature’s embrace, we uncover a bond that speaks to our soul, untamed and eternal, teaching us to live in harmony and wonder,” Zuelsdorf says.
Having settled into the friendly Gulfport community and beginning a family in the late ’80s, he noticed the trash and neglect around and within the waterways of Clam Bayou.
What’s it like to kayak on Clam Bayou and Boca Ciega Bay?
We tried it.
“I was shocked at what I saw in this natural area,” he says with a look of distaste, gesturing broadly toward the area around us. “It wasn’t a nature preserve at all. This park was a dump and the bird life suffered and wildlife habitats were trying to survive among all this trash. You couldn’t even see water, there was so much trash congregating in this bayou.”
This energy provoked his journey of stewardship and advocacy for the Clam Bayou. Inspired, he provided solutions, such as securing grants for the cleanup, and delivering education promoting clean waterways. Simultaneously, he worked with City officials to stem the flow of trash.
Kayak Nature Adventures
In 2003, Zuelsdorf began Kayak Nature Adventures. By 2013, he was leasing kayaks at the Gulfport Municipal Marina. He offered free kayak rentals to kayakers who collected trash on the paddle. In time, these kayakers pulled in 200 tons of every sort of debris from the waters and mangroves. Throughout the last 23 years, the ups and downs of business occurred as they do in most small businesses.
There were years with the bayou filled with kayakers and months where business was closed or slow due to water quality issues, yet through the ups and downs, Zuelsdorf remained true to his stewardship.
Several buckets of trash later, we return to his kayak rig. He meets customers ready to commence a four-hour adventure. Zuelsdorf offers instructions, the map — did they watch the video? Intertwined in those practicals are instructions about wildlife, what people have seen recently in the water, and how to get help.
When he returns to me, I ask about his plans for retirement.
“What am I going to retire from?” he replies. This is a person, who in his drive to protect nature, has architected his life to do so.
Kurt Zuelsdorf is one of the pearls among us, Gulfport.
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